


Expectations

by StephirothWasTaken



Series: Genderbent AUs [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, But it's not a b-day fic, Childbirth, Father-Daughter Relationship, Female Prompto Argentum, Gen, Genderbending, Happy Birthday Prompto!, No Beta, Unplanned Pregnancy, bad summary, bad title, not that graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-01-02 14:21:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 18,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21163058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StephirothWasTaken/pseuds/StephirothWasTaken
Summary: Prompto became a Hunter against the wishes of her father, Cor Leonis.Years later, she does not regret her decision, but an unexpected surprise causes her to rethink her future.Will her pregnancy be the key to helping her fix her relationship with her father?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Quick Note: I went back and cleared up some major inconsistencies in the first chapter. I’m very surprised that no one commented about them. haha
> 
> Happy (early) birthday, Prompto!
> 
> If you have read the previous story in this series, you might remember that I would come back to that a long time from now because I’ll be busy with other stuff, and while that’s still true, I had to take the time to make sure I got something up for Prompto’s birthday!
> 
> I wrote this in between several panic attacks, so I hope it will make sense. It took a super long time to edit. I experimented with a new online editing service, and I think it did help me make this better.
> 
> If you come up with a better title for this, please let me know because I am the absolute worst at titles.
> 
> Anyway, please enjoy!

Prompto stepped into the caravan, and she sighed at the rush of cool air on her sweaty skin. She set her grocery bag on the counter, and she pulled out a box of that _thing she was unwilling to think about at the moment_.

The mere sight of it made her heart pound in her chest.

She took it with her to the bathroom, and after she used it, she stripped herself down to her skivvies and stepped into the shower to wash the sweat and Leiden sand off her body. Her dog tags clacked together as she lathered herself up with the generic body wash she had found at the Hammerhead convenience store.

A Hunter’s work was exhausting and never-ending. Hunters were most known for keeping the overabundant wildlife of Lucis under control, but to be a successful Hunter, it was important to be a jack-of-all-trades. People in the more remote areas of the country would need help not only with packs of voretooths but also broken power lines, totaled cars, and a long, long list of other things.

Prompto had no regrets in becoming a Hunter. She had more scars than she could count on her body, and she never hid them away because each of them was a reminder of all she has accomplished. It has only been a few years since she had left Insomnia, and she felt like she has proven herself a valuable member of the Hunters organization.

Yet she also had her doubts it was the life for her.

Prompto recalled all the nights she had woken in the middle of the night hearing her father screaming from nightmares. It was a side effect of being a soldier during the Great War, and it had been terrifying to hear her father, a strong and unflappable man, scream at monsters from his past. She was now having nightmares herself. Only she was not as lucky as him to have someone to go to for comfort, someone to remind her that the battle was over and she was safe and sound in her apartment.

When Prompto had left Insomnia, none of her friends had followed her. Noctis had sold everything he had inherited from his late father, except for the hotel that had been named after him, and he only left it to go to Galdin Quay or visit his pen pals in Tenebrae. Ignis would rather be dead than be anywhere without Noctis, and Gladio was no different.

Prompto was the only one who had left the city hoping to find herself.

Prompto had found fulfilling work outside of the city, but it was questionable whether she had found “herself.” She had hundreds of scars on her body as souvenirs for all the good deeds she had done, but that happiness she had been looking for remained elusive to her.

Part of her wanted to blame it on her pining after a woman who did not reciprocate her feelings, but the ache of loneliness in her chest had been there long before she had even met Cidney, the Grease Monkey Goddess of Hammerhead.

There was just something that Prompto had been missing for a long, long time, and that missing piece of herself was nowhere to be found in any region of Lucis.

Prompto stepped out of the shower, and she avoided looking at that _thing_ while she dried herself off. Her stomach was twisting itself into knots as she agonized over it. After she wrapped a towel around herself and twisted her long blonde hair in another towel, she finally grabbed _it_, the pregnancy test, which would give her either good or bad news.

Prompto had yet to decide which option was good or bad.

The word “pregnant” leered at her on the digital screen.

With a long sigh, Prompto dropped the stick into the trash can. She went into the main living area of the caravan, and she opened the fridge only to find that she had forgotten to put her groceries away.

Prompto grabbed a bottle of cool water from the grocery bag. Some of it splashed on her hands as she brought it to her lips, and she drank half the bottle before she let herself take a breath.

When Prompto had skipped a period, she had been uncertain whether to panic about it or not. Hunting was a physically demanding job, and it was not unusual for a period to get skipped when a Hunter did not take proper care of themselves. She had suspected her reason was different from that, and the proof sat in the bathroom trash can.

It had just been a one-night stand with a fellow Hunter. Prompto barely remembered his name, but she remembered his face—the dark hair and the deep-set dark eyes that she had joked made him look like a serial killer under certain lighting.

When Prompto had met with him, she had wondered just what her father would think of him. Cor Leonis had never been the most garrulous of men, but if he hated someone, he never left it a mystery. There had been a few boyfriends and girlfriends she had taken home that he had seemed fine with, but there had been plenty that he had given a death glare, crossing his muscular arms over his broad chest and drawing himself to his full 6’ 3" height.

Because a man had knocked her up, Prompto could not help but think he would have given him his best death glare.

She wanted to laugh and cry, and she did both as she shoved potato chips into her face.

* * *

Cid Sophiar was like a second father to her.

Or third because Nyx had married her dad, making him her actual second dad.

Or sixth because Noctis and Gladio’s dads and Ignis’s uncle had been part of Prompto’s daily life as a child.

Anyway, Prompto had met him when Noctis had taken his three closest friends with him during an important road trip to help them deal with losing loved ones in the same freak accident. He had once been the main mechanic for Noctis’s dad, but after his son had died, he had gone to Hammerhead to take care of his granddaughter.

Cid now owned a few businesses in Hammerhead, and he had helped Prompto get her bearings when she had come out there alone. He had tried to get her to work at the convenience store next to his garage—which she suspected he was doing because of her father—but when she had asserted her will to be a Hunter, he had many connections that had aided her in her journey.

Prompto sought him out the morning after she had discovered her pregnancy. All the tossing and turning she had done in the middle of the night had made her tired, and she could not even make up for the lack of energy with precious energy drinks, which she admittedly drank far too many of every day.

Prompto wore a loose-fitting T-shirt instead of the leather armor and denim that she always wore to Hunting. She had plenty of money to tide her over for the next few days, and casual clothes were much cooler to wear under the desert sun. Work could wait a few days while thoughts ran wild through her head.

She went to the garage. A few cars were sitting in the parking lot, and one of them looked like someone had wrecked it. As she crossed the street from the caravan to the garage, she spotted a familiar butt sticking out from beneath the hood of a truck. 

Cidney was Cid’s granddaughter who now ran the garage in his place. She liked to wear jean shorts that threatened to show off the bottom of her butt cheeks, and with how hot it was, no one, not even her grandfather could blame her for showing off so much skin.

Prompto forced a smile on her face, and she approached Cidney, scuffing her sandals on the ground to avoid startling her.

“Heya, Cidney!” she greeted her.

Cidney straightened herself and turned to Prompto. She adjusted her hat, which had the logo of the garage, over her blonde hair to block the sun’s light. There were grease and dust smudges on her face, and Prompto internally swooned at the adorableness of it.

“Mornin’, Prompto!” Cidney called, and a grin spread across her face. “I didn’t know you were back in Hammerhead.”

“I just got back last night. I was so tired that I found a caravan and went straight to bed.”

“Oh, I bet. What can I do ya for?”

“I was just looking for Cid. Is he around?”

“Pawpaw went to Takka’s for breakfast.”

“Thanks! I’ll get out of your hair then!”

“You be careful now!”

Prompto let her grin fall as she turned away from Cidney, the cutest girl in Lucis who was also completely oblivious to flirting from absolutely everyone. She waved at the convenience store manager as she passed it on her way to Takka’s restaurant.

Takka was some kid who had tried stealing from Cid a few years ago, and instead of calling the police or even Hunters to help deal with him, he had employed him instead. After a few years, Takka had told Cid about his dream of opening up a restaurant. Cid had bought some rundown building near his garage and paid to have it fixed up, and he had told Takka to run the place. The young man had become a partner on the lease a few years ago, and Prompto had heard a few days ago that he was finally the sole proprietor of the business named after himself.

Takka’s Pit Stop was a circular building, one of the more interesting pieces of architecture throughout Leide. The kitchen was in the middle of the building and all the seating along the round walls. Big red letters forming the restaurant’s name sat above wide double doors. Cool air and the sounds of chatter rushed over Prompto as she opened the door. The smell of cooked meat hit her nose.

Prompto searched as she walked up to the counter. She found him sitting alone in a booth. His Hammerhead baseball cap covered his thin white hair, and his beard looked rather unruly that morning.

Cid was a tiny old man at 5’ 4”. When he had stood next to Gladio, a 6’ 6” behemoth of a man, the height difference had been hilarious to her, but he had a big enough personality to make him unforgettable to anyone.

She had no idea how he could stand wearing his jacket in this unbearable heat.

Takka gave her a nervous greeting as she went up to the counter. She ordered a spicy omelet with extra vegetables and milk. One of his servers gave her the order, and she took it with her to Cid’s booth. The man barely glanced away from his biscuits and gravy, a special dish only on the menu for Cid. Arthritis made his hands red and swollen.

“Good morning,” Prompto said, forcing cheer into her voice. “Mind if I join you?”

“Since when are ya polite ta me?” was Cid’s gruff response. “Sit yer ass down.”

Prompto gave a real chuckle as she sat across from him at the table, and she tucked into her omelet.

“Ya worried about somethin’?”

“Hm? Why do you ask?”

“You look like you ain’t been sleepin’.”

Prompto sometimes forgot how observant the old man was. He was in his late 80s. His body was arthritic and slow, but his mind was as sharp as ever.

“Yeah, I guess I haven’t been,” she said.

“The same thing keepin’ ya up that’s also keepin’ you from talkin’ to yer old man?”

“I talk to both of my dads on the phone.”

Cid pointed at her with his fork.

“Then tell that asshole to stop bitchin’ about it in every damn letter he sends me.”

“He said that I don’t talk to him?”

“He said ya ain’t been sendin’ ‘em pictures, and it’s got ‘em all sad ‘n shit. ‘Course, the kid ain’t ever gonna admit it in words. He just asks me ‘bout it like I follow ya ‘round Lucis every day.”

Prompto gave a nervous giggle.

“I guess I haven’t been going out and taking as many pictures. I didn’t mean to make him worry.”

Cid stopped pointing his fork at her, and he went back to eating his breakfast.

“His job is to worry,” he said. “Ain’t nothing ya can do to stop it, but ya could make it easier on ‘em. Call ‘em once in a while.”

Prompto stopped herself from rolling her eyes.

“I do call him.”

“Ya message ‘em. It ain’t the same.”

Prompto sighed, and she downcast her eyes to her omelet.

There was no point in trying to convince Cid that she called Cor every week.

Even though she usually ended up talking to Papa if anyone answered the phone at all. Cor had a bad habit of ditching his phone in his office while he was driving his boss around Insomnia.

“Both of ya have ta work out yer shit,” Cid continued. “Ain’t either of ya gettin’ any younger, and you two don’t want to be old or dead before ya finally talk to each other and work it out. Take that as advice from an old, old man.”

* * *

Prompto sighed as she lay there in bed, failing to sleep again. The room was pitch black, but she could hear the sounds of people talking and getting settled into their caravans.

After her talk with Cid, Prompto had gone to the walk-in clinic to confirm that she was a month along in her pregnancy. Then, she had gone to the convenience store to pick up more food for her to eat later, and then she had plopped herself onto her couch, where she most definitely did not sob into a cushion.

Prompto and her father had not parted with each other on the best of terms. She had sat with her fathers during dinner, and she had told them she had decided to be a Hunter. Nyx had had a look of apprehension on his face, but he had forced a smile and wished her luck. Cor had hit her with his steely gaze, and he had all but called her a fool.

There was a part of Prompto that understood that he had just been worried. Cor had been a soldier in the most devastating war in human history, and he had nearly lost Nyx, who had been his boyfriend rather than his husband at the time, to a Hunt that had gone wrong. His instinct was to hold his family close and shield them from harm.

But she had been so tired of his over-protective nature.

After Noctis had invited her along on a road trip, Prompto had gotten a taste of the world outside of Insomnia, and she had longed to see it. She had been good with guns, so she had gotten into the Hunters organization, which promised her daily adventure and excitement. The idea had been terrifying, but her head could not let go of the idea.

Prompto had looked her father in the eye, and she had told him she was going no matter what he thought about it.

He had stormed away saying nothing further, but the anger had been clear in his face.

She had seen her father angry at people before. Cor knew how to be intimidating, but true anger from him was terrifying. It was quiet, and when he struck, he was so fast you never had time to react. Sometimes he used words that cut deeper than any knife.

Prompto had not expected the silence, and the way he had walked away had been unsettling. She had driven out of Insomnia with guilt churning her belly, and she had refused to speak to her fathers or friends for a full month before Cid had gotten to her and told her to stop being stupid.

That was when Prompto had begun sending Cor pictures of the places she went to, of the beautiful sunsets she got to see while camping in the wilderness, and of the interesting people she got to meet. She had thought that Cor would ignore her messages out of stubbornness, but to her surprise, she had gotten a “That’s beautiful” from him, making her realize a relationship with him was not a lost cause.

With another sigh, Prompto reached for her cell phone. She scrolled through her contacts, which was a depressingly small list. “Papa” and “Princess Sleepy” were right next to each other on the list. Both of them would be asleep. Her thumb hovered over the green phone next to their names, but she did not understand which one she wanted to speak to the most.

Prompto stabbed the green phone next to “Princess Sleepy.”

It took four rings before she heard Noctis’s sleep-roughened voice:

“Prom? Are you dying?”

Prompto gave a high-pitched laugh that showed that she was at the very least not okay, even if she was not dying.

“Yeah, I know it’s three in the morning. Sorry, buddy.”

“So, is something wrong, then?”

There was some shuffling as Noctis climbed out of bed, and she heard the click of a door shutting.

“It’s nothing, uh, big,” Prompto said. “Or maybe it is. I don’t know.”

“Mind saying that again but making sense?”

Prompto took a deep breath, and it came out shaky. Her throat closed up, but she was not ready to talk about the pregnancy. She still had yet to process that bit.

“I’ve been thinking a lot,” she began, “about coming home.”

“For a break, or are you thinking about quitting?”

“I...haven’t decided yet.”

“Did something happen?”

“Ah, nothing serious. I mean, I’m not injured. There’s just been a lot of stuff on my mind.”

“Anything you want to talk about?”

“Maybe not right now. It’s bad enough that I already woke you up.”

Noctis snorted, and Prompto chuckled.

“I mean, you may as well talk about it now _because_ you woke me up. If it’s something you want to talk about.”

“No, I just couldn’t sleep, so I guess I tried relieving my boredom with you. I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right. Did you call to ask me for a place to stay? You’re more than welcome to stay here while you figure out what you want to do.”

“Yeah, I was thinking about coming over tomorrow, if you don’t mind. I’ll try to talk to my dads about it.”

“That’s fine.”

“Thanks, Noct.”

“You’re practically my sister. It’s no biggy.”

Warmth bloomed in her chest, and she felt a smile spread across her face.

“Hey, since you can’t sleep,” Noctis said, “how about we play some _King’s Knight_ together?”

“If you don’t mind me showing off all the sweet loot I got in the server tournament.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t cheat, so there.”

“Oh, but you tried, buddy. You sure tried.”

“Shut up.”

* * *

Insomnia’s traffic had become even more terrifying than it had been before Prompto had left it. Everyone drove in electric cars, and for some reason, that meant that they had to drive like crazy people. She was certain someone was going to run her off the highway if not outright crash into her, and she had one of Cid’s cheap old junkers, which was not built to be the safest on the road.

Prompto’s phone _kweh_ed, alerting her to a text message.

“Bhakti, read the text message,” she commanded her phone, shouting to be heard over the noisy car.

“Text message from Papa: You’re in Insomnia now? The house will be empty for another few hours, but yes, you’re welcome to stay! Your dad discovered the spare key I hid in the garden, so you can’t use it to get into the house. I’m sorry, kiddo.”

Prompto told Bhakti to reply:

“That’s okay. I’m going to see Noct, anyway.”

“I’ll hurry at work. I can’t wait to see you! Love you!”

Prompto laughed as Bhakti struggled through the overabundance of emojis that Nyx had sent her. Then her phone _kweh_ed again.

“Text message from Princess Sleepy: I awake. Why?”

Noctis’s morning—or late afternoon for most people—texting skills were just as bad as she remembered.

“I’m in Insomnia, and I’ll be there soon.”

Instant reply:

“AH, SHIT! I OVERSLEPT AGAIN!”

Bhakti did not tell her it was all in capital letters, but she knew that was how he would have written it.

Prompto just laughed at him.

* * *

Noctis lived in the penthouse of Nocturne Suites, which was one of the most prestigious hotels in Insomnia, and it was huge and impossible to miss next to the Old Quarter. It was the only modern building in a neighborhood full of places that were at least four centuries old.

Prompto’s junker stood out as she drove through the area but not in a way she would have liked. She reminded herself not to look at the expressions on all the rich people’s faces as she passed them. If Noctis were there, he would give them the stink eye back, but she had never found it in herself to be so confrontational.

As she parked her junker in the parking lot, it was impossible to miss the glare of the bellhop, a boy dressed in a silly black, old-fashioned uniform, especially as he marched straight toward her car. She was quick to grab her bag and search for her VIP pass and ID.

“Ma’am, this hotel is accepting reservations only,” the bellhop said as he sidled up to the car, hands on his hips like he was intimidating in that ridiculous outfit.

Prompto might not have been able to win against this guy in a show of strength, but she knew she had the skill to flip him onto his back, thanks to all of her training.

She refrained from doing so. Instead, she gave him her pass and driver’s license.

The bellhop’s snooty look morphed into surprise when he looked at the two cards. He bowed as he handed them back to her.

“I’m sorry for the misunderstanding,” he said in a much more polite tone. “Have you any bags you need me to carry for you, ma’am?”

“No, I got it. Thanks.”

As Prompto strolled into the lobby, rich old ladies clutched their purses when they spotted her, but she kept her head high and her gaze straight ahead of her instead of focusing on them. If they knew that she was a pseudo-sister to the man who owned the hotel, then they would fawn all over her to gain favor with him.

Prompto showed the reception clerk her VIP pass and driver’s license, and there was no further fuss as she walked to the elevator. It was a long ride, but the jazz versions of some of her favorite video games playing in the elevator made her laugh out loud.

Noctis had always threatened to change the music to game soundtracks if someone sneaked vegetables into his food without an acceptable level of cheese to cover up their taste, and he seemed to have made good on it.

The small lobby of the penthouse had a sofa, just in case Noctis took his sweet time answering the door. Prompto rang the doorbell, and she heard the chime. It was the victory song from their favorite game, _King’s Knight_.

When the door opened, the person who stepped through the door was not the black-haired man she had expected but a petite woman with long blonde hair. Her blue eyes brightened as she smiled at Prompto.

“Luna?” Prompto gasped.

Growing up, Prompto’s only friends had been her pseudo-brothers and a pen pal, a girl from Tenebrae. Noctis had already been pen pals with her at the request of his father, and when Prompto had expressed her jealousy of his having a pen pal from the exciting mystical land of Tenebrae, he had suggested she write letters of her own to her.

Lunafreya Nox Fleuret had turned out to be a super-rich girl, but she had been sickly, which had made her kind and thoughtful in ways that no one else she had known had been. She was also the only person she felt she could talk to about certain issues.

They had met once when Noctis had taken her on that road trip, which had taken them through Tenebrae, but it was a surprise to see her in Lucis. No one had mentioned to her that she was coming to Insomnia.

“Hello, Prompto,” Luna said, smiling.

There were tears glistening in her eyes, and Prompto felt her own eyes grow warm. She threw her arms around her, and Luna giggled as she returned the gesture.

“It’s so nice to see you again,” Luna said in that delightfully accented voice of hers. “You have gotten so beautiful.”

Prompto’s whole face grew hot, and she chuckled as she drew away from the other blonde.

“No, I’m a hot mess,” Prompto said. “I’m not even half as pretty as you.”

Noctis appeared behind Luna, and he gave Prompto a stern look over Luna’s head. Luna stepped to the side to give them more space.

“Prom, how many times do I have to tell you to stop talking like that, huh?” he said.

Noctis looked different from the last time she had seen him. It was no surprise to Prompto because the two of them exchanged pictures all the time, but seeing it in person made it seem more real.

When they had been younger, Noctis had always spent a great deal of time on his appearance. He liked to make sure he was clean-shaven, and he always made sure that his hair was spiked all over his head in just the way he liked it. His eyebrows were always perfect, and sometimes he even put on make-up, which he would vehemently deny with his dying breath.

Now he preferred to sweep it out of his face without using so much hair gel, and he sometimes let himself grow a beard. He had shaved his face that morning, but Prompto assumed that was because of Luna, the girl he had refused to admit that he really liked until _she_ had asked _him_ on a date.

“Hey, buddy,” Prompto said.

Noctis pointed an emphasizing finger at her, but the corners of his lips turned up in a barely suppressed smirk.

“I mean it, young lady, you’re beautiful, and you had better start believing it or I’ll ban you from Chocobo rides forever and ever for as long as I am alive.”

Prompto rolled her eyes in mock annoyance, but she felt her own smile emerging on her face.

“That’s an impossible threat to make good on.”

“Watch me try,” Noctis said, chuckling.

He held out his arms, and Prompto stepped into them, giving his back a friendly pat to make sure that his girlfriend knew that it was friendly and nothing more. Luna knew enough about them to know that, but enough of Noctis’s previous girlfriends had been jealous of her that she wanted to make sure.

“I’ll check on the tea,” Luna said.

Noctis pulled away from Prompto.

“Do you want help?” he asked.

“I can handle making tea, Noctis. I’m not that fragile.”

“Love you, babe.”

“I love you, too, Noctis.”

Prompto’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline at that loaded word, and when Luna disappeared into the kitchen, she said:

“Whoa, you guys use that word now?”

Noctis’s face turned red.

“It’s been a couple of years now, so yeah.”

Prompto chuckled, and she clapped him on the shoulder.

“It’s good to see you happy, buddy.”

Prompto threw herself in a chair in front of the enormous projection screen. There was a pile of snacks on the table, and she grabbed a bag of chips. She ignored the flavor because everything was tasting the same to her these days.

“So why didn’t you tell me Luna was staying here?”

“Ah, we kind of don’t want to talk to anyone about it yet,” Noctis explained as he plopped himself on the sofa. “We’re just testing the waters for now.”

“You haven’t popped the big question yet, have you? I will strangle you if you have without telling me about it.”

“Ah, well, we’ve talked about it, but we want to see how we like living together first.”

“When you do, remember to tell me because I will definitely punch you in the face if you don’t.”

Luna emerged from the kitchen carrying a tray with a teapot, fancy cups, and plates full of baked snacks. Noctis’s eyes lit up like a kid at Christmas, and he shoved a cookie into his mouth.

“Prompto, try the cookies,” Noctis said, pushing a plate of cookies toward Prompto. “Luna’s baking is better than Ignis’s, I swear to the Six.”

* * *

Prompto received a message from Cor while she was gorging herself on Luna’s amazing baking skills:

“Be home in an hour.”

Short and to the point, like every message from Cor was.

It was dark outside by the time she received it. Prompto considered staying the night with Noctis, but she felt like she had already been intruding on his and Luna’s nice day together. Besides, the highway would be less busy at this time of night, even if not clear of traffic.

Watching Luna and Noctis together had been as painful as it had been cute. Prompto had not expected the pangs of jealousy in her chest every time the two had given each other an adoring look or pecked each other on the cheek.

One thing she had been hoping to find out there in Lucis was someone to share those same looks with, but she had never found that person. Dating had been difficult because Hunting was so time-consuming, and during her free time, she would usually collapse in a bed to take a hard-earned nap.

Her fathers lived in the same house they had bought when Prompto was a teenager. It differed from the last time she had seen it. As Prompto entered the neighborhood, she saw that Nyx had made good on his promise to build a deck in the backyard, and the siding was now a soft blue instead of the “piss yellow” that Cor had hated so much.

When Cor had bought the house with Nyx, he had liked it because it was close to his job, but he had almost passed on it because of the aesthetics, which Nyx had promised to change just to get him to agree to it.

Prompto pulled into the driveway, and she parked behind a black SUV, which she knew was Nyx’s. There would be plenty of room for Cor’s car once he came home.

Prompto adjusted her rearview mirror to look at her hair, and by the Six was it a mess! She ran her fingers through her hair to fix it, but it just got floofier the more she worked on it. Her only means of saving it at the moment was to put it into a ponytail.

Once she got the hair tie in place, Prompto heard a spring door creak, and she looked at the front door, finding a tall man with black hair and beaded braids behind his ears. He kept the sides of his head shaved, and the rest of his hair had gotten longer since the last time she had seen him. His pale blue eyes met hers through the car windows, and he flashed her a dimpled grin.

“Prompto!” Nyx exclaimed.

Nyx was at her car in a few long strides, and as soon as she stepped out of the car, his arms were around her. The smell of his soap and the booze he served at his bar overwhelmed her nose.

“Oh, my sweet little girl,” he said. “It’s so good to see you again.”

Prompto chuckled as she returned the hug, burying her face into his neck. The whiskers on his face scratched against her cheek. It was a strange feeling that she had not realized that she had missed until then.

“I missed you, too, Papa,” she said.

Nyx pressed a kiss to her cheek as he drew away. He touched her ponytail.

“You’ve let your hair grow out,” he observed.

“Yeah, it’s been hard finding the time to get it cut out there.”

“It looks cute.”

“Thanks.”

Nyx’s eyes had more wrinkles than she was used to seeing around them, and her chest tightened at the realization that so much time had passed since she had become a Hunter. She had returned to the city a few times since then, but she had never noticed any of these little changes in her Papa’s face.

“Are you hungry?” Nyx asked. “I was just making dinner if you want some.”

“Yeah, I’d love that. Thank you.”

“And I assume you brought some stuff. No point in leaving it in the trunk.”

Nyx insisted on carrying her things. She had only packed her clothes and basic hygiene necessities in it because weapons, even for a licensed Hunter, were illegal within Insomnia.

When they entered the living room, Prompto caught a whiff of spicy Galahdian food and warmth bloomed in her chest.

Nothing smelled more like home than food that was spicy enough to burn a hole straight through a human body. Cor had been a good cook himself, particularly with seafood, but Galahdian food was so different from his food.

Nyx planted a kiss on her hair before he let go of her arm.

“I’ll just set this stuff in your room. Would you mind checking on the sauce for me?”

“My room?” Prompto repeated. “I thought Dad would have turned it into a study by now.”

“Prom, you will always have a room here for as long as either of us are alive.”

A lump formed in Prompto’s throat, and she drew in a shaky breath before letting it out with a _whoosh_. 

She had stayed with her friend Noctis during the few times she had returned to Insomnia, but somehow she had never realized that she could have come home any time.

Prompto went into the kitchen. She could see the chunks of garulessa meat sitting on a cutting board and waiting to be put on a skewer and grilled. Nyx had left the sauce to simmer on the stove, and she stirred it with a plastic spoon to keep it from burning as it thickened up.

Prompto sneaked a taste of the sauce, poking the spoon with her finger before sucking it into her mouth. It took a moment for the spices to take effect, but it burned in the best way possible.

“How’s the sauce?” Nyx asked as he came into the kitchen.

“Perfect.”

“Please tell me you didn’t lick the spoon and then stick it back into the sauce.”

“Of course not. I stuck my finger in it.”

Nyx sighed, and he insisted that she wash her hands with him before returning to stirring the sauce—with a clean spoon. Then he went to the cutting board to stick skewers into the chunks of garulessa meat.

“So what brought you back to Insomnia?” Nyx asked as they worked. “Hunters don’t get vacation time, the last time I checked.”

Nyx had been a Hunter before he had gotten with Cor, and he had nearly died on the job. It was the main reason Cor had been insistent that she not become one herself. He had been one of the best in teams, but he had also had a death wish, risking his life to protect his friends.

It was no wonder that everyone had worried about her while she was out there on her own.

Prompto lifted one shoulder in a shrug, keeping her gaze on the simmering sauce.

“I haven’t been my best for a while,” she admitted, “so I thought it was time for a break.”

“Something happen? Did you get hurt? Or is it something that’s been on your mind?”

Prompto got the feeling of being caught, even though she knew that was silly. He was just being a concerned father. There was no reason to suspect he knew about the extra _weight_ she was carrying around.

“Oh, no, I didn’t get hurt—nothing beyond a few cuts and bruises. I just...I guess I have had something on my mind for a while. I needed to take some time to think about it.”

“Something you want to talk about?”

Prompto paused, looking away as she thought about it.

“Later,” she said. “When Dad’s home, too.”

Nyx nodded, and he went into a story of something that had happened at the bar recently, sparing no time for awkwardness. He had always been so much better at this whole conversation thing than she was.

* * *

Nyx was grilling the garulessa skewers on the grill on the back deck when they heard a vehicle pulling into the driveway.

Cor appeared around the corner of the house. He wore a black business suit like he was an FBI agent, but he was just a businessman, one who had inherited the biggest security company from the late Regis Lucis Caelum. His short-cropped brown hair looked a lot more gray than it used to, and it was surprising to see him with a full—but gray—beard.

His icy blue gaze was just as intense as she remembered, but he softened as soon as he spotted her.

“Hey, Dad,” Prompto greeted him.

Cor climbed the steps onto the deck, and he pecked his husband on the cheek without drawing his attention away from her.

“Prompto,” he said. “It’s good to see you.”

“You grew a beard. Like, a full one.”

Cor rubbed at the scruff on his face.

“Looks strange, doesn’t it?”

“No, it looks nice.”

Prompto stood on her toes to plant a kiss on her very tall father’s cheek, and she looped her arms around his neck for a hug. He returned it in that stiff way he always did: giving her back a light pat with one hand.

“Hey, dinner’s almost done,” Nyx said. “Go get cleaned up. And Prom, set the table.”

“Yes, sir,” both Cor and Prompto said.

Cor gave her a subtle smirk, and Prompto chuckled. The tension she had been feeling over the last few days eased.

For the first time, she felt like this reunion would go well.

“After you,” Cor said as he opened the back door.

Prompto ducked inside. Cor followed her in, but he disappeared into the living room to go upstairs. She pulled out plates and glasses from the cabinets, and she arranged them around the table for the three of them. Nyx came in with the skewer. There was a big bowl of salad sitting in the fridge, and he placed both the salad and the skewers on the table.

Cor came downstairs wearing a black T-shirt and matching sweats. He slapped his husband on the ass, and Prompto went to the fridge to avoid catching sight of their gross displays of affection.

“Hey, Prom, you went to see Noctis earlier, didn’t you?” Nyx asked as he poured his beer into a glass.

“Yeah,” Prompto answered as she grabbed a bottle of water, the only thing in the fridge without alcohol or caffeine. “We hung out for a bit.”

“He doing okay?” Cor asked.

Prompto wanted to spill his secret so badly, but she also knew how important privacy was to him. She sat at the table and picked up one of the spicy skewers.

“Mm-hmm,” she answered. “None of the guys were with him, though. I’ll try to go see them soon.”

“Ig’s been busy,” Nyx said. “Nothing new there.”

“And Gladio got himself a new girlfriend,” Cor added. “Said she’s ‘the one.’”

Prompto snorted. Gladio had always been quick to fall in love with his girlfriends.

“I’m ninety percent sure he knocked her up,” Nyx said.

Prompto shoved the skewer into her mouth too quickly, and she felt the end of the stick poke into the roof of her mouth. She kept her eyes firmly trained on the bowl of salad in front of her. All the tension that had left her earlier came back to her as she listened to them talk.

“She went into the bar with Gladio the other day,” Nyx explained, “and she has that glow, you know? Plus, she didn’t drink anything. Either she didn’t like it last time or she’s pregnant.”

Prompto sipped from her non-alcoholic water.

“No shit?” Cor said.

“I don’t know what their plans are, but he’d be a great dad, though, wouldn’t he?”

“He’s always liked kids.”

Prompto looked up at Cor and found him smothering the skewers with blue cheese dressing. Growing up, spicy food had been a rarity for him, and even though he insisted that he liked Nyx’s food, he had never appreciated the bite of it.

“Papa,” Prompto said as she chewed on the spicy skewers, “I have really, really missed eating your cooking.”

Nyx flashed her his lopsided grin.

“Your dad still isn’t used to it.”

Cor turned his icy glare to his husband.

“I’m doing fine,” he grunted.

Prompto giggled.

“So you said you had something you wanted to talk to us about when your dad got home?” Nyx prompted.

Both of her fathers were staring at her now, and she felt her face turn red. She took a deep breath, and she blew it out with a _whoosh_, staring hard at the plate in front of her.

“Yeah, I, um, had something I needed to tell you,” she said. “I’ve had a lot of stuff on my mind, and one of those things is, uh—is, uh, I’m pregnant.”

The silence at the table went on for a few seconds, and Prompto looked up at her fathers with wide eyes. Nyx was smirking at her, but Cor had his usual intense look on his face. She frowned at them.

“So?” she prompted. “You guys going to let me sit here feeling awkward?”

Nyx chuckled as he put his hand over hers.

“Sorry,” he said. “I could tell the moment I saw you.”

“How? I’m not even that far along!”

“How far along _are_ you?” Cor asked while Nyx continued to chuckle.

“A month.”

“And is this something you want?”

“Uh...I haven’t figured that part out yet.”

“And the father?”

“The father? He doesn’t know.”

“Do you want him to?” Nyx asked, and he gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

“I don’t know. I really...I have no idea. Honestly.”

“Well, regardless of what you choose, your father and I will support you. Right, babe?”

“Right,” Cor said, face turning bright red as he struggled to eat the spicy garulessa meat.

The tension in Prompto’s body finally left her. Some of it remained as she still had a lot to think about, but with her parents finally knowing, it was a huge weight off her shoulders. She had shared the information, and she even had help until she figured out what to do with it.

Tears pricked her eyes, and a smile forced its way onto her face.

“Thank you,” she said. “Thank you so much.”

Nyx leaned over and kissed Prompto on the temple.

“Like I told you earlier, your room is always open to you,” he said. “You can stay as long as you want.”

“Okay.”

“Now unless anyone else has big news to drop at this table, let’s make fun of Dad for how red his face just got from eating that.”

“Fuck you.”

Nyx and Prompto giggled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cid and Cidney’s accents were difficult for me because I have only played with the Japanese voices, and I had a hard time remembering exactly how they talk. Haha.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! Let me know what you think! Comments, whether praise or criticism, kudos, and subscriptions are all deeply appreciated.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! It’s been entirely too long! I've got some focusing issues, and I've been working on other things instead of this. I am making an honest effort to deal with my focusing issues because it's super annoying to have them.
> 
> If you didn’t already know, I went back and cleared up some inconsistencies in the first chapter. I had mentioned Regis was dead twice, and then suddenly he was alive at the end. I’m surprised no one called me out on it. hehe But it should be more consistent now.
> 
> Warning that there are a lot of time skips coming up.

-**At 12 Weeks**-

Prompto took a deep breath before she hopped out of her junker, and she felt a tightening in her chest as she approached the clinic. It was a small place within Insomnia that specialized in gynecology and obstetrics. Cor, who had been nagging Prompto about finding a proper OB/GYN since the day she had told him about the pregnancy, had recommended it to her after asking his employees about where they went for their “lady needs,” as he had put it, and after doing some research of her own, she found it was considered one of the best in the city.

The only problem was that it would leave a larger dent in her savings than some other places, even with the special insurance she had as a Hunter.

The receptionist was kind but distracted as she spoke to Prompto and handed her some paperwork. There were few others waiting in the lobby for their appointments, and most of them paid attention to their phones, only glancing at her as they typed away on their screens.

Prompto felt her phone buzz as she sat down. Nyx had sent her a message with hearts and an “I love you!” She replied with hearts before filling out the form.

Her fathers remained the only people who knew. She had her suspicions that Ignis had the same mysterious baby-detecting superpower that Nyx did—much less mysterious now that she had an obvious bump that even baggy clothes failed to hide—but he had said nothing to her about it. Gladio was too excited about his girlfriend’s pregnancy to notice much of anything beyond his growing family. Noctis was too busy running a fancy hotel and spending time with Luna, who was also too busy with him and working on her medical degrees.

After she handed the paperwork back to the receptionist, she pulled out her phone to play _King’s Knight_, and she tried to get Noctis to join her for a short raid into a goblin cave. He was offline, so she busied herself with taking care of her kingdom instead. A nurse called her into the office just as she was deciding what to buy in-game, and she was glad for the distraction before she ended up buying a coin pack to help her unlock a super cool gatcha full of premium generals for her army.

“My name is Jan,” an older woman wearing colorful scrubs said as Prompto took a seat on an exam chair. “You’re here for an ultrasound, correct? I’ll be taking a few tests while we wait for your doctor to prep the machine.”

Prompto felt her phone buzz in her pocket, but she ignored it to focus on the appointment.

“How have you been feeling?” Jan asked.

“Okay,” Prompto said. “Is it normal that I haven’t felt any nausea?”

“It’s perfectly normal. Every pregnancy is different. Some women get terrible morning sickness, some get none, some are somewhere in between. You might experience it later in the pregnancy, or you might get lucky and not experience it at all. Either way, it’s not a good or bad sign of complications.”

Jan wrapped the cuff of a blood pressure monitor around her arm, and Prompto jumped at the pinch she felt as the bag thing tightened around her arm. They were silent because talking could make her blood pressure higher, and she was already nervous. The nurse made a quick note of her blood pressure before she turned off the machine and set it aside.

“You have a very strong heart,” she said. “You seem to be very active.”

“I was a Hunter for a while. I did a lot of running around and stuff.”

“Ah, a very important job! Thank you for your service.”

It never stopped getting weird to hear that, but it was even weirder hearing that from an Insomnian. Hunters were rarely called for help within the city, and some people barely even knew what they did, having no experience with how dangerous the wildlife was outside of the city. She had underestimated them herself before she had left Insomnia, and she had heard countless stories from Nyx and his friends about all the injuries they had suffered during hunts.

Jan then asked Prompto to step onto a scale, and it was no surprise that Prompto weighed more than she had before she had come to Insomnia. She sat on the exam table again while the nurse withdrew some blood from her arm. The sight of the red fluid filling the syringe made her feel queasy, and she turned away.

“There we are,” Jan said as she bandaged up Prompto’s arm. “That should be everything we need from you other than the ultrasound. Doctor Bev should be here in a few minutes.”

Prompto nodded, and Jan left, carrying the blood sample with her. She took out her cell phone, and she found that she had gotten a message from Noctis through _King’s Knight_. Noctis had accepted her invitation, but then she had closed the app just before the raid could start. He gave her some angry emojis, but he had done the same thing so many times she knew he was not actually upset with her.

“Serves you right,” she sent to him.

He answered immediately with a laughing smiley face. Then they began their short raid on a low-level goblin cave. The game was calculating all the gold she had earned when the door opened again, revealing someone who looked older than Jan.

White streaked her black hair, and her dark eyes looked warm as she smiled. There was a name tag on her white jacket that said “Bev.”

“Prompto Leonis?” she asked.

“Yeah?” Prompto answered, feeling an uncomfortable twist in her belly.

“I’m Doctor Bev. Sorry for the wait. We’re sorting out a few mistakes with paperwork. Are you ready for your ultrasound?”

Prompto followed Bev into a different room with an ultrasound machine. She sat down and lifted her shirt to expose her protruding belly. The doctor squirted cold blue lubricant onto the tiny mound, and she swirled the wand through it before running it over her belly.

“How far along do you think you are?” Bev asked as she watched the monitor.

“I should be about twelve weeks along,” Prompto answered, finding herself unable to look away from the screen.

A tiny blob appeared on the screen. Bev flipped a switch, and there was also a rapid _whump_ing coming from the machine. An unexpected warmth rose in Prompto’s chest. 

“Ah, there we are,” Bev said. “That seems about right for twelve weeks, and I see no signs of complications. And we can already hear the heartbeat.”

Prompto did not realize she was crying until she felt a tear run down her cheeks. She scrambled to wipe them away. 

“They’re also moving quite a lot,” Bev added, pointing at some flickering near the fetus.

She turned to Prompto with a soft smile.

“So, did you want a picture?”

Prompto bit her lip as she stared at the screen and listened to the sound of the heartbeat. For the past two and a half months, she had been agonizing over her pregnancy, going back and forth in her head about what she wanted to do, but that little noise was enough to bring a different feeling.

“Yeah,” she said, feeling her mouth stretch into a smile. “Yeah, I would.”

* * *

“Hey, smells good in here,” Nyx said as he entered the kitchen.

Prompto turned from the stove, where she had been stirring an easy stir-fry dish. Both of her fathers had come home, a rare occurrence even with Cor taking more time off than he used to, and she was certain that it was because they wanted to be there to hear how her first real appointment had gone.

“Thanks, Pops,” Prompto said. “Hey, Dad.”

“Good evening, Prompto,” Cor said as he went to the fridge to put away a pack of Uncle Libertus’s homemade beer. “How was the appointment?”

“Uh, fine,” Prompto said. “I mean, the people there were nice.”

“That’s good,” Nyx said, and he leaned down to kiss Prompto on the cheek.

“I, uh—They took a blood sample.”

“Mm-hmm.”

Prompto took off the stir-fried vegetables and meat from the burner, and she scraped them onto three plates, which were already heaping with rice. She carried the food over to the table. Nyx poured beer into cups for himself and Cor while Cor sat at the table and gave her an expectant look.

“I also got an ultrasound,” Prompto continued, “and I got to hear their heartbeat.”

Warm tears blurred her vision, and she smiled for the umpteenth time since the appointment.

“I’ve finally made up my mind,” she said, voice thick with emotion. “About the baby.”

Prompto watched their faces. Cor had always had a good poker face, and he gave her a neutral expression that she appreciated as his effort to be supportive of whatever decision she made. Nyx, however, could not hold back a twitch at the corner of his mouth as he suppressed a smile.

“Yeah, I want to keep them,” Prompto said.

Nyx’s face melted into a proper smile, and he drew her into a hug. Cor surprised her when he wrapped his own arms around them both, and he planted a kiss on her forehead. It brought even more tears to her face.

“Congratulations, honey,” Nyx said. “I hope you have the sonogram."

Prompto chuckled as they parted to allow her to dig out her phone from her pocket, and she showed them the little black and white image. Nyx cooed about it as he plopped back down at the table.

“You’ll be a good mother, Prompto,” Cor said, and he pressed another kiss to her forehead before he joined Nyx at the table.

Prompto’s eyebrows raised in surprise, but as the words sunk into her head, she felt even more tears stream down her face.

“It’s true,” Nyx added. “That will be a well-loved kid.”

“Thanks.”

Prompto sat down, and she answered the onslaught of questions about how the appointment had been.

* * *

-**At 14 Weeks**-

Prompto recounted the chairs surrounding the two tables she had pushed together. She had gone with Nyx to his bar to meet with Noctis and Luna, and after dealing with Libertus’s bear hugs, she had found Noctis and Luna already enjoying some food and drinks. Once she was certain they had enough chairs, she joined the two at the table.

“Oh, man,” Noctis said around a mouthful of spicy garulessa meat. “I swear these get better every time I try them.”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full, dear,” Luna said, amused as she watched her boyfriend, and she sipped some sugary drink that Crowe had insisted be on the menu.

“I added a little more spice to it just for you,” Libertus said with a wide grin.

Libertus was a childhood friend of Nyx’s. He wore two beaded braids on the side of his head, and he had tattoos on his face and body similar to Nyx’s. He was a man who took pride in the food he made. There were other Galahdian restaurants and bars in Insomnia, but he insisted that Selena’s, his and Nyx’s bar, was the only place in Insomnia that served authentic Galahdian food and drinks. Most Galahdians said Libertus was just being a snob.

“Anything you all want is on the house,” Libertus said. “Yell for me if you need me. I’ll be in the kitchen.”

“Thanks, Uncle,” Prompto and Noctis both said while Luna gave him a more polite “Thank you.”

Libertus disappeared into the kitchen.

“When’s everyone else going to get here?” Prompto asked in between bites of her hearty stir fry.

“I don’t know about Gladio, but Ignis will be here in a few minutes,” Noctis said. “Apparently some guy ordered too much of something but not enough of another thing, and he has to yell at them.”

“Dude, Igs is so scary when he’s mad.”

“Yeah, I broke his glasses when we were kids, and I was scared he was going to actually kill me.”

“Can’t say I blame him. You were a shithead back then.”

“That hasn’t changed much,” Luna said, grinning.

Noctis pressed a hand to his chest in mock offense.

“Luna, my love, how could you say such a thing!” he said, earning a chuckle from Luna.

The couple leaned toward each other and kissed, and Prompto rolled her eyes. She had thought they would be over the lovey-dovey stage after a few weeks of living together, but they had instead gotten even more sickly sweet with each other.

“Hey!”

All three of them turned to find a tall, heavily tattooed man approaching them. He had dark brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, and he wore a black tank top that showed off his enormous bird tattoo as much as possible without violating health codes. Beside him there was a woman with long dark hair of her own stepped in, looking at Prompto with an uncertain smile. She had a large baby belly—a larger one than people would expect from someone in her second trimester—and Prompto finally understood Nyx’s insistence that she was carrying twins.

“Hey, big guy,” Prompto greeted, and she stood to hug first Gladio and then the dark-haired girl. “And you must be April.”

Gladio greeted everyone, and then he properly introduced April and Prompto to each other.

“It’s so nice to finally meet you,” April said. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

“Embarrassing stuff probably,” Prompto said, chuckling.

“Hey, that’s kind of weird that this is the first time you two are meeting,” Noctis said. “Prompto’s been back for what? A month now? Two months?” 

“April’s been staying home a lot,” Gladio explained as he joined them at the table.

“I hope it doesn’t seem like I’ve been avoiding everyone,” April said as she took a seat next to Gladio. “I’ve been so tired lately.”

“Hey, it’s important that you take care of yourself,” Noctis said, offering April a kind smile.

It had surprised Prompto when Gladio had asked about bringing April because the two of them had not yet met. Part of her had hesitated to invite her because everything she knew about the woman came from Nyx, who was the most notorious gossip queen in all of Insomnia, but she had also known that April would be a permanent part of one of her closest friends’ lives.

Libertus came back out to ask them what food the new arrivals wanted, and it was no surprise that they both ordered double portions of everything.

Ignis arrived at the exact moment that he had agreed to join them. His dark blond pompadour had a few strands out of place, but he combed them right back as he scanned the bar for his friends. Gladio called for him and waved at him.

“Good afternoon,” Ignis said as he joined them at the table.

Noctis and Prompto both kissed him on the cheek, and his face turned pink. He cleared his throat and adjusted the glasses on his face.

“I apologize for being late,” he said. “I had to correct a few discrepancies at work before I left.”

“No problem, man,” Prompto said, clapping him on the shoulder. “We’re just happy to see you.”

Gladio’s loud voice having alerted him to Ignis’s arrival, Libertus reappeared to ask Ignis what he wanted and to refill anyone’s drinks if they wanted more. Once everyone had what they wanted and Libertus was in the back again, Noctis and Gladio started teasing each other. Gladio picked on Noctis for being scrawny, and Noctis teased Gladio for being a muscle head.

Ignis rolled his eyes at their antics, but he upturned his lips in a slight smile. He turned to Prompto.

“I believe it was you who wanted us all to gather here today,” he said. “There doesn’t need to be, but I am curious if this is a special occasion.”

If Prompto had had no reason to suspect that he had figured out she was pregnant before, she would have realized it then. Feeling her cheeks heat up, Prompto glanced at the others at the table.

“Ah, yeah,” Prompto began, “I guess you could say it’s a special occasion.”

Everyone turned to look at her, and her cheeks grew even hotter. Prompto had thought talking to her parents about this had been difficult, but now she was talking to three times the amount of people.

“Ah, yeah, I…I never told you the full reason I came back to Insomnia. You all know that I was trying to figure stuff out, but I am also, uh, pregnant.”

Everyone at the table was quiet. Prompto looked at all of them, feeling her chest tighten as they just stared at her, eyebrows rising on their foreheads. Only Ignis maintained a smile, but even he said nothing. She suddenly wondered if she was making the announcement too soon, especially with it being just a few weeks after April and Gladio’s announcement.

“Guys, feeling a little awkward here,” Prompto said.

Everyone jolted at that, blinking at everyone else around the table, except Ignis, who said:

“I suppose everyone is wondering if this is a happy pregnancy.”

The tension in her body left at that, realizing that she was springing this on everyone when they had no idea how long she had been worrying about this.

“Oh, uh, yeah—Yeah, I’ve decided to have them.”

“Congratulations, Prompto,’ Ignis said, and he placed his hand over hers and gave it a gentle squeeze.

Noctis ran around Ignis to wrap her in a hug, and Luna was right behind him to hug her, too. Both of them planted kisses on her cheeks as they also congratulated her. Gladio clapped her on the shoulder with a grin on his face, and April looked relieved that she did not have to experience her pregnancy by herself.

“So, how far along are you?” Noctis asked, beaming brighter than Prompto had expected him to, especially since it wasn’t his child.

“About fourteen weeks now,” Prompto answered, giving her belly a gentle pat.

“Is the father to have any involvement?” Ignis asked.

“Uh, well, no…”

“Is he a dick?” Gladio asked, eyes narrowing as he watched her reaction.

“No, no, he was just a fling. I haven’t seen him since that one day. This sounds really bad, but I barely remember his name.”

“Should you ever feel the need to track him down,” Ignis said, “I’m sure that could be easily managed.”

“Yeah, maybe someday. For the kid’s sake, at least. They’ll probably want to know more about him.”

“And if he turns out to be a dick, they’ll have plenty of people who love them,” Noctis added.

Prompto could not help the chuckle or the sudden lump in her throat at that.

“Thanks.”

* * *

-**At 24 Weeks**-

Prompto huffed a sigh as she looked at her bank account. She sat at her desk in her room. Her computer was the same one she had bought just before deciding to become a Hunter, and after she had cleaned out the dust that had gathered in it, it had booted up. It was slower than she would have liked it to be, but the fact that it worked at all was surprising.

Prompto had some money saved up from her days as a Hunter, but the doctor visits for the pregnancy were putting a huge dent into her account. Her fathers were more than capable and willing to pay for them—they were already insistent on feeding her and paying for her prenatal vitamins without charging her any rent—but she hated mooching off them so much.

Her friends were proving to be no better—Noctis especially. He not only insisted on going with her to the doctor appointments, but he kept buying her stuff. She already had a pile of baby clothes—in mostly yellow because Prompto had decided she wanted to keep the kid’s sex a surprise at birth.

Ignis had bought her more practical things, like diapers and baby bottles, and he would sometimes randomly drop by with food that he insisted she eat instead of the overabundance of spicy junk food she had been craving. Gladio was understandably more focused on April, who was carrying twins like gossip queen Nyx had been saying for a while, and he had told his sister Iris, who lived all the way in Lestallum. She had already promised to send a big box full of stuff to Prompto and to Gladio.

There was a hard knock on the door, the kind that Cor made. Prompto closed the browser, revealing her most recent sonogram as her wallpaper. A smile spread across her face at the sight of it.

“I’m decent,” Prompto called as she spun in her chair.

Cor opened the door. His icy blue eyes looked her over before scanning the room for danger, an old habit he had gotten into as a soldier and had never given up. All the shenanigans she had gotten into as a little girl had not helped his paranoia.

“Prompto,” Cor said in his gruff voice. “I hope the appointment went well this morning.”

Prompto nodded, and she hooked a thumb at the computer monitor behind her.

“Yeah, that’s the little pomegranate right there. Did you check your phone? I sent you a copy.”

Cor raised his eyebrows, and he shook his head.

“No, I guess, I didn’t hear it.”

Prompto shrugged. He had been at work, so it was no surprise.

"Did you need something, Dad?” Prompto asked.

“Just wanted to check on you.”

“Oh.”

Prompto felt awkward as her father continued to scan her room saying nothing. His eyes narrowed as they landed on certain objects, but he otherwise said nothing about them.

“Are you okay, Dad?” Prompto asked.

“I never realized how small this room is.”

Prompto’s eyebrows knitted together. She looked around the room, wondering if they were looking at the same space. It was smaller than the rooms that Noctis had growing up, but his dad had more money than everyone else on the planet. The room was just a normal-sized room with more than enough space for normal furniture.

“It’s, uh, not?”

Cor smirked at her.

“It’s not big enough for you and the baby, is all I meant.”

* * *

-**At 26 Weeks**-

Prompto had just laid down to help sleep off a headache when she heard her cell phone buzz and slide across the side table. She would have ignored it if Nyx had not had the habit of asking her to do things for him, so she opened her eyes with a groan and grabbed her phone. It was a text from Luna rather than Nyx, but because she had already gone through the trouble of picking up the device, she read it anyway:

“Hey, Prom! Iris is visiting the city for a while, and Noctis is going to be busy. I thought we should have a sleepover together. Just us girls! I’ve invited April too. Would you like to come?”

Prompto blinked at the text. She was both stunned by Luna’s audacity to interrupt her attempts to sleep and that Luna, who would turn thirty soon, had just suggested they had a sleepover like little girls. It was so out of the blue that she had to wonder if Iris had been the one to suggest it first.

“What day?” she replied. “I promised to help Dad and Papa with some stuff.”

Prompto had nothing better to do, but she also didn’t want Luna to know that.

The answer was immediate:

“Tomorrow night! Can you make it?”

“Yeah. I’m excited to see you and Iris. It’s been ages since the last time I saw her.”

As soon as the younger Amicitia had moved to Lestallum, Iris had been the person she had seen the most. Her job had brought her inside the Lestallum many times, and she would always visit with her every time she could. They had been close growing up, and they had grown even closer away from Insomnia.

Living in Insomnia without her nearby had been weird.

Luna replied with a simple smiley face emoji. Prompto took that as the end of their chat, and she set her phone aside so she could sleep.

* * *

“Are you sure you have everything you need?” Nyx asked as he placed Prompto’s backpack into the trunk of Noctis’s car.

“Pops, I’ve been packing my own bags for a long time now,” Prompto reminded him.

“I seem to recall you calling me just yesterday because you forgot your phone at the bar.”

Prompto pulled her cell phone from her back pocket.

“I have it right here,” she said. “Besides that, we’re going to a fancy hotel. I’m pretty sure I could get whatever I wanted if I am forgetting something.”

Nyx chuckled, and he leaned down to kiss her on the forehead.

“Just making sure. Your dad and I are going to be busy today so we can’t drop anything off for you.”

“What will you be busy doing?”

“Work stuff,” Cor cut in, moving to stand next to them.

“Okay?”

Neither Cor nor Nyx had mentioned that they would be busy, but she supposed it was none of her business—or more likely something she did not want to think about.

“Come on!” Iris called as she ran up to Prompto. “I’m starving! Let’s go get some food!”

Iris looked a lot like her brother, having the same dark brown hair and amber eyes, but she was short—shorter than Prompto. She used to keep her hair short, but now it went just a little past her shoulders when she let it out of the ponytail. Her love for black and red plaid clothes had gone unchanged throughout the years.

“Yeah, let’s get going,” Prompto said. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

She kissed her fathers on the cheeks, and then she climbed into the front passenger seat. Prompto watched Iris hug Cor and Nyx through the side mirror, and then the younger girl skipped to the driver’s seat. She immediately threw her arms around Prompto, despite the two of them already hugging when she had arrived, and Prompto laughed.

“Oh, Prom, I’ve missed you so much!” Iris said.

“I’ve missed you, too. I’m sorry I took off to Insomnia without telling you.”

“Hey, it’s not like you have to answer to me about anything.”

“I know, but still, I feel bad I never told you.”

“You had a lot on your mind. Don’t worry about it!”

Iris pulled away with a wide grin, and she turned her attention to the front of the car as she buckled up.

“How’s the little squish by the way?” she asked as she started the car.

Prompto pressed a hand over where she could feel her little squash fluttering around, and she could even feel it against her palm. When she had first felt them moving around, she had been both amazed and freaked out, but now she was more used to it and loved it.

“I think they’ve picked up on my excitement,” she said.

“Oh, you can feel them moving?”

“Yeah, you want to?”

“May I?”

Prompto placed Iris’s hand right over where she could feel them kicking her, and a giddy smile spread across Iris’s face. After a while, the younger girl had to turn her attention back to the road, and she drove toward their next destination, which was a convenience store to pick up some snacks before they made it to the hotel.

“You look so happy now,” Iris said. “It’s such a relief to see it.”

“Hm?”

“I mean, you didn’t seem miserable before, but the last few times I saw you I could tell your heart wasn’t really into Hunting anymore, you know? You looked so tired all the time.”

“I don’t feel like that’s changed much.”

Iris gave a light chuckle.

“Yeah, I’m sure you’re tired all the time. I just mean that I can tell that this is what you really want to do, and I’m really happy for you. It’s nice seeing you happy.”

Prompto’s gaze went toward her protruding belly, and she gave it a pat, feeling the baby kick again.

"You’ll be a great mom, Prom,” Iris added. “You’ve always been pretty good at taking care of us, so there’s no doubt in my mind that you’ll do fine.”

“Thanks,” Prompto said, uncertainty holding back the tears she could feel prickling her eyes. “It does mean a lot to hear that.”

“I mean it! You’re the best!”

“I won’t tell Gladio you said that.”

Iris giggled.

“I already talked with him about it. He already knows I think he’s a big nerd.”

Prompto snorted.

“He’s going to do a good job, too,” Iris continued. “He practically raised me, so he’s kind of already been a dad this whole time. I mean, not that my dad wasn’t a good dad. He just wasn’t around a lot.”

Prompto nodded. It had been much the same in her childhood. She had seen little of Cor growing up, and while she spent a lot of time with his childhood friends’ children, she had still spent money of her time alone. Things had changed when Nyx came around, but even he had been busy trying to run a bar with his friends. There had been no doubts about her fathers’ love for her, but she definitely understood the loneliness that Iris must have felt as a kid.

“Gladio’s been trying hard to be around for everything,” Prompto said, “and it probably helps that Noctis doesn’t give him a very demanding job. Uncle Reggie was an insane businessman.”

“Yeah, Reggie had his hands in just about every industry. I don’t blame Noct for choosing to stick to just a couple. He got to see his dad way less than we saw ours.”

Recalling the bouts of depression that Noctis had suffered through when they had been teenagers sent a pang to her chest.

Iris pulled into the parking lot of the convenience store, and they went in together, arm in arm. They each held a basket in one arm, and they collected things they wanted and the things Luna had asked Iris to get. It was mostly junk food, and if Prompto had not been eating healthy for the last several weeks, she might have felt guilty for it.

Once they bought everything and carried it to the car, they headed to Noctis’s hotel. Luna had said that Noctis had some kind of business thing going on, and she would have the penthouse to herself for the night. Instead of staying there by herself, she had invited all of her “girlfriends” over and have fun.

The bellhops had all learned to be nicer to Prompto since her return to the city. They just waved them through without studying their special passes with skepticism, and they offered to help them carry their things up to the hotel, even though there was not a lot to carry: they had one overnight bag and a few bags full of snacks.

Luna answered the door, and she threw her arms around them, giggling.

“Oh, you two are finally here!” she exclaimed.

Prompto could not stop herself from sniffing at Luna’s hair. The older girl smelled like flowers all the time. It might have been biologically impossible, but Prompto was convinced Luna sweated sylleblossom perfume.

“I was beginning to think Iris had forgotten her way around the city,” Luna said, giggling as she drew herself away from them.

"Sorry, I had to spend some time catching up with my favorite uncles," Iris said in defense of herself.

Luna took the convenience store bags from them, and she showed them to the main sitting room where they came across April sitting on the couch while eating a bowl full of honeyed fruit. The heavily pregnant woman turned sleep-puffy eyes toward them.

"Oh, you two made it!" April said, and it took her a moment to stand with the weight of two babies in her belly.

"Hey, April!" Iris exclaimed. "We come bearing food!"

Iris hugged April and kissed her cheek. Then April turned to Prompto to also give her a hug in greeting.

Prompto wished she felt more comfortable around April, and the awkwardness between them was not because of anything April had done but rather Prompto’s habit of avoiding strangers. Even as a Hunter it took more than a few run-ins before she tried getting to know someone, and now she had the additional excuse that she was tired. Although, perhaps not as tired as April.

Luna immediately dug through the snacks while everyone else got comfortable on the couch. Iris and Prompto sat next to each other, and Iris snuggled into Prompto’s shoulder, like she used to when they had been younger. No one complained as April took control of the TV remote to look for something to watch.

Over the next several hours, they just sat around the penthouse. They talked a lot during the terrible movies they watched. They ate entirely too many snacks. Iris volunteered to braid their hair. April fell asleep during a much-appreciated foot massage from Luna, and Prompto wasn’t far behind her, falling asleep on Iris's shoulder.

* * *

“I hope you had fun, Prompto,” Luna said as she started Noctis’s car.

All four of them had climbed into the vehicle, and they had agreed to drop off Prompto first. Prompto had noticed that the other three ladies all looked unusually excited, but she realized the sleepover had put them all into better moods. Even April looked better rested than she had the night before.

“Yeah, it was really nice catching up with everyone,” Prompto said.

After spending so much time together the night before, the silence during the car ride felt comfortable. Prompto stared out the window. The other three would occasionally say something, usually to point out something or someone weird that had caught their eye.

Once they reached the Leonis house, she counted far more vehicles sitting in the driveway than she had ever seen. She recognized Ignis’s car, and there was also her aunt Crowe’s motorcycle, Libertus’s car, and Uncle Pelna’s car. Several stacks of boxes were sitting on the front porch, and she thought she recognized them from the attic.

“Wait. Why is everyone here?” Prompto asked, and she looked at the other three and found they did not look the slightest bit surprised.

“We may have volunteered to get you out of the house to surprise you,” Luna said.

“Surprise me?”

“Just wait until we get inside!” Iris said, hopping on her butt in the seat. “You’ll love it, I promise.”

Prompto frowned at her friends. While she was more tolerant of them on certain occasions, she had never been big on surprises, and she felt her shoulders tense as she wondered what the surprise could be.

Luna parked Noctis’s car on the street in front of the house because there was no room in the driveway. As Prompto climbed out of the car, Nyx came out of the house. His eyes were red and watery, and his nose looked rubbed raw. Nyx suffered from seasonal allergies, but she was sure that it was not the time of year for them to be affecting him so much.

“Hey, Prompto,” he said, but he stayed a small distance away. “Hey, ladies. No one looks dead, so I assume you had a good time.”

Prompto kissed his cheek.

“Yeah, we had fun,” Prompto said, and she grabbed her braid to show it to him. “Got our hair and our nails done. Typical sleepover stuff.”

If Nyx was not sick, he would have given the braid a light tug like he always did. Instead, he nodded and smiled.

“So, uh, apparently there’s some kind of surprise for me,” Prompto said, fighting to keep a smile of her own on her face.

“Ah, the girls’ have already spoiled it, huh?”

“Hey!” Iris protested, planting her hands on her hips. “We didn’t tell her what the surprise is.”

Luna chuckled.

“We didn’t give her any details,” she added.

“Well, in that case, let’s go in so you can see,” Nyx said.

They walked inside together. The first thing she noticed was a stack of dusty boxes, the ones she knew had been sitting up in the attic for years. That would explain why Nyx looked sick: the dust was bothering him.

A loud whoop brought her attention to the rest of the room. Her aunt Crowe, Libertus, Pelna, and all three of her pseudo-brothers were there, covered in dust and grinning at her.

Crowe and Noctis both stood and rushed to her and Nyx, who just laughed as Crowe pushed him out of the way to wrap her arms around both Prompto and Noctis in a three-way hug. Libertus was right behind them to join in, and Pelna demanded to be next once the other three stepped away. Gladio greeted his girlfriend first, and Prompto went over to Ignis to kiss his cheek.

“Ah, Prompto.”

She turned to find Cor descending the stairs, and she went up to him to greet him as well.

“Hey, Dad,” she said, looping her arm through his. “So, what’s all this about?”

“Everyone came here to help me with something.”

“Yeah?”

“Let’s go upstairs.”

Cor led Prompto upstairs, and the only one who followed was Nyx, who was dabbing his nose with a tissue. The stairs to the attic were lowered, and there was a bright light streaming from the room. Her father guided her upstairs as well.

Growing up, the attic had been the typical unpleasant experience for her. It had been unfinished, dark, creepy, and full of old things. While she had been gone, she realized that Cor had gotten everyone together to clear out the attic and finish it.

It was not yet a completed room, but it now had a proper ceiling, floor, and walls. All it would need was a carpet and some paint.

“I wanted to turn the attic into a room,” Cor explained. “I thought Nyx and I could move up here, and if you stay, then the baby could have a room, too.”

Prompto blinked as her father’s words sank into her head.

“You made room for the baby?” she said.

“Your dad’s been going on for a while about how there isn’t any room for the baby,” Nyx said, “and he finally made room. Once we have everything finished up here, you’re welcome to move into our room and turn your old room into a nursery.”

“Oh” was the only thing that Prompto could think to say. A lump was forming in her throat, and her eyes were feeling warm. Just a few seconds ago, she had thought Cor wanted her to leave, but he had been planning to surprise her with the addition of a room.

“We have a lot of boxes to go through,” Cor said. “We put yours downstairs so you can go through them. I’ll have to reorganize the shed and the garage to make room for all the stuff we want to keep.”

Prompto nodded. She was afraid to speak because she knew she would burst into tears. Her jaw trembled as she looked around, avoiding looking at her parents.

“Are you all right, Prom?” Nyx asked, frowning.

She cleared her throat before answering:

“Yeah, I just never expected you to go through this much trouble for me.”

Prompto’s voice was still thick with emotion, and she felt tears spill down her cheeks, further ruining her attempts at hiding her feelings. 

“You’re never trouble, Prompto,” Cor said, and he pulled her into his arms.

It was still weird when he initiated hugs, but it was a change that she appreciated. She drew her own arms around him, pressing her wet cheeks to his chest.

“I’ll go downstairs and check on everyone,” Nyx said, hesitant like he was afraid of ruining the moment. “They spent the night here, so they’re probably sick of us.”

Cor hummed, and Prompto felt it vibrate through his chest. She heard Nyx’s footsteps as he descended the steps, and her father drew away with a kiss to the top of her head.

“I know you don’t like surprises,” he said, “so I’m sorry if this isn’t a welcome one.”

“No, Dad, this is so nice of you,” Prompto said, and she surprised herself when she chuckled. “I feel like I should have known you were thinking of something like this a while back. When we were talking about how small my room was the other day.”

“I didn’t realize I was being subtle.”

“You’re usually not very subtle.”

Prompto stood on her toes to kiss him on the cheek. Tears were still running down her face, but she gave her father a wobbly smile as she realized what she was feeling: relief. Cor had not been planning to kick her out of the house at all.

“Thank you, Dad. This does mean a lot to me.”

Cor gave her an awkward pat on the shoulder.

“I think you have seven other people you need to thank,” he said. “They did most of the work.” “Yeah, I should do that before they leave.”

Prompto gave him another kiss on the cheek, and she went downstairs, wiping her cheeks on her sleeves.

* * *

-**At 38 Weeks**-

Prompto tacked the last sketch onto the corkboard over her desk, and she sat back to look at them. There were three different character designs that someone else had described to her, and with them side by side, it was easier to see what parts of the designs worked and which ones did not.

Prompto was grateful she had maintained her social media throughout her time as a Hunter. She had not uploaded her photos and sketches consistently, but she had kept an audience of people who had admired her work and even showed an interest in paying for her work. Although Noctis and Ignis were her two biggest contributors in that regard, she still had a few people who had been happy when she had opened up commissions to draw whatever they wanted.

I had surprised Prompto when Ignis had suggested she take commissions. He had always been such a hard-working corporate dude that Prompto had thought he would suggest she went to school to get an office job or something as equally soul-sucking, but instead, he had shown her how so many freelance artists were making their living these days.

It made her feel less useless as she relied more and more on her fathers to pay for her doctor’s bills and baby furniture on top of general living costs. It would be a long time before she made enough to live on her own, if ever, but it had been fun so far.

Prompto grabbed her sketchbook, and she worked on the character for a fourth time, feeling confident that this time she could present to her client something closer to his expectations. As she worked, she hummed one of the songs she had been playing for the little melon, and she ran a hand over her enormous belly every once in a while.

Prompto grunted as her stomach tightened, pain flaring in her lower back. She lifted her pencil before she made another errant line, and she clutched at her stomach as she doubled over. She had been having contractions all morning. At first, she had assumed it was another one of those practice contractions she had been having for the last few months, but then they had gotten more frequent and more intense.

If this was the real thing, it would be a while before the doctor expected her to go to the hospital.

Prompto had sat down to work on one of her commissions to distract herself while she waited for them to get stronger, but that had been a few hours ago. She could do with a break, and with the contractions worsening, she was not sure she could keep doing it, anyway.

Prompto felt a buzz in her pocket, and she pulled out her cell phone. It was a call from Cor.

“Hey, Dad?”

“Prompto, I have some documents I left sitting on my desk, and I need you to bring them to me if you can.”

“Yeah, I can do that.”

“Thank you. The traffic’s shit, so it will take a while to get here."

“Ah, right, the new bridge they’re building.”

“I’ll see you soon.”

Prompto had another contraction as she tucked her phone back into her pocket, and she waited for it to pass before she left to go up to her fathers’ room, where she found a stack of files on top of his desk. They had a date scrawled across them, confirming to her they were the files he needed, and then she left the house to bring them with her to the car.

Insomnia, being the most populated city in Eos, was busy at all times of the day. Prompto was no stranger to bad traffic in the city. Still, the traffic that day was a nightmare, even after taking a few detours. Cars were pressed bumper to bumper on the main roads, and she had to wait much longer than usual at every stoplight.

Prompto’s contractions made driving even more stressful. She was diligent about timing them as she waited for her turn into her father’s workplace. They were getting closer together and longer, but it would still be a while before she had to go to the hospital.

The receptionist at the front desk was an older woman whose bright smile turned into a frown as she watched Prompto waddle to her. Her name tag read, “Patty.”

“Miss Prompto, are you okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Prompto suggested. “I’m just in early labor.”

Patty’s eyes grew as big as saucers.

“Did you come here by yourself?”

“Yep. Dad needed some papers, and I was the only one home.”

Patty face-palmed before she picked up her phone to alert Cor that Prompto was there with his documents. He came down only a couple minutes later, face softening upon spotting her. As he approached her, Prompto felt her stomach tighten, and there was pain in her lower back. She grunted as she doubled over.

“Prompto,” Cor said, eyebrows pressing together. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah, just in early labor.”

Once the contraction was over, Prompto sighed in relief, and she straightened back up to smile at her father. His face was set in annoyance, that way it always was whenever she made him worry.

“Why the hell didn’t you say anything?” he asked.

“Well, I wasn’t sure it was real at first, but they’ve gotten worse.”

“I would have come home if you’d told me. Nyx, too.”

Prompto resented the slight spike of pain in her chest at the worry in his tone. The last time she had heard that in his voice, they had stopped talking to each other for several weeks.

“I’m sorry, Dad,” she said. “This stuff takes so long I didn’t want anyone to rush home just yet.”

Cor shook his head, but he reached for her hand instead of scolding her.

“Have you been timing your contractions?” he asked.

“Yeah, except for that last one. They were about ten minutes apart in the car.”

“Ten minutes.”

“Yeah.”

“Prompto, we’re going to the hospital.”

“Huh? But we’re supposed to wait until they’re closer together, right?”

“You’ve seen the traffic today, and we don’t want to wait too long or you’ll be stuck giving birth in the middle of traffic.” 

Cor turned to Patty, and he handed her the stack of files. He told her to get them to one of his assistants, and he turned to Prompto. He nodded at her before he walked toward the front doors.

“Did you grab your hospital bag before you left the house?” he asked. 

Prompto felt her cheeks heat as she realized she had not even thought of it once during the time she had been having contractions.

“No, I did not.”

Cor sighed, but he made no fuss about it as he led Prompto to his car.

“Text Nyx to get it,” he said, “and tell everyone else you’re in labor while you’re at it.”

Prompto nodded. She waited until she was in the front seat of Cor’s car to send a text to Nyx, and then she went into the group chat Gladio had made a while ago to show off pictures of his healthy twin girls and an exhausted April. She posted she was in early labor. As Cor drove them out of the parking lot, she received good luck messages from Ignis and Noctis, and Iris spammed the chat with encouraging gifs and emojis.

Prompto would have laughed if her next contraction would have come a second later.

* * *

“Dad, are we almost there?” Prompto asked after a powerful and painful contraction. “We have to be almost there right?”

“Not as close as I’d like us to be,” Cor said.

Prompto whined. Upon opening her eyes, she saw that they were still bumper to bumper in traffic, and they were only a few feet further ahead than they had been before her last contraction. She whined again, and she felt her father’s calloused hand slip into hers.

“Everything’s going to be fine,” he assured her. “Just remember to breathe.’

“I don’t want to have a kid in the middle of the highway, Dad.”

“How are the contractions right now?”

“Really long and hurt a lot."

“Are you feeling the urge to push?”

“Not quite? I don’t know.”

Cor cursed, and his hand tightened on the steering wheel, knuckles whitening. Prompto squeezed his hand in hers, but she lost any comfort she might have felt the moment she felt a gush of liquid between her legs. She looked down at her wet pants in horror.

“Did your water just break?” Cor asked.

Prompto’s chin wobbled, and she sniffled as she struggled to hold back an impending sob. The car filled with a strange, sweet odor.

“I’m sorry,” Prompto squeaked.

“You haven’t done anything to be sorry for.”

“I ruined your car.”

“You didn’t ruin my car.”

“I got everything wet and gross.”

“It’ll clean up. Just breathe.”

A sharp knock on the window startled a gasp out of Prompto, and she jerked her attention toward the sound, finding a terrified-looking Nyx standing outside with her hospital bag slung over his shoulder. She rolled down the window. Cool air struck her skin, and she realized how much she had been sweating.

“Hey, I brought the bag,” Nyx said.

“Did you walk here?” Cor asked.

“After a point, yeah. We’ll have to come back for my bike later. How are you doing, Prom?”

“I got Dad’s car wet,” Prompto cried.

“Your water broke?”

Prompto vigorously nodded, and she felt hot tears slide down her cheeks as she squeezed her eyes shut.

“Just breathe, Prompto,” Cor reminded her.

“I am breathing, Dad.”

Nyx sighed, and he hopped into the back seat of the car.

The traffic light flipped to green, but the light turned red again just before they could turn onto a different street. Cor leaned forward in his seat until his head hit the steering wheel, the first sign that he was not as calm as he appeared.

When the next contraction hit, it came with the urge to push again, and by the time the wave was over, she felt something shift. Her eyes went wide, and she gasped.

“Is something wrong?” Nyx asked, and he stretched out a hand to rest it on her shoulder.

“I think they moved, but I don’t know if that’s because I was pushing or if they’re settling.”

“You said you don’t want to give birth in the middle of the highway,” Cor reminded her, “so don’t push.”

“But I _really_ felt like I needed to.”

Prompto tried to focus on her breathing during the next contraction, taking in two quick breaths and letting out one slow one, but fighting the urge to push felt unnatural, like someone had bent her arm in the wrong direction.

The traffic light turned green once again, and Cor sped down the highway. To her horror, instead of continuing down the busy street, he flew into the nearest parking lot, where a few startled pedestrians looked at the speeding vehicle with shock equal to her own.

“Cor?” Nyx asked.

“We’re not getting to the hospital in time,” Cor said as he parked as far from the restaurants in the lot as he could, “so we’re going to have to get this done ourselves.”

Cor pulled out his phone as he climbed out of the car, and he wasted no time in calling the hospital. He barked orders into the phone like the military officer he had once been. Nyx sighed as he squeezed her shoulder.

“Am I having my baby in the parking lot?” Prompto whimpered. “I don’t want to have a baby in the parking lot.”

“Lots of babies are born in parking lots, little sunflower. We’ll take care of both of you.”

Cor opened her car door, and he rested his arm over the hood as he continued his conversation over the phone. He cast a glare at a few people who had stopped to stare, and they scurried away. The following seconds felt like an eternity.

“Prompto,” Cor said as he lowered his phone from his ear, “how are you doing?”

“I feel like shit.”

“Are you dizzy? Weak? Any pain where you shouldn’t be feeling pain?”

Prompto continued her breathing exercises as she assessed the less obvious sensations in her body, and she shook her head when she realized it was all concentrated in her abdomen and back.

“Nothing feels wrong,” she said.

Cor nodded. He said a few more words into his phone, and then he tucked it into his back pocket.

“An ambulance is on the way,” he assured her. “Do you think you can wait? We want to go at your pace here.”

Another contraction seized Prompto’s body, and she felt a shift in her body again.

“I don’t think the baby cares about my pace right now,” Prompto huffed.

“I can make sure everything’s okay if you’ll let me.”

Prompto took a few moments to breathe. She had already begged her fathers to record the birth for her. Nyx had blanched, but Cor had shrugged it off like he had seen a million births in his life. Although to be fair, he had seen worse things than birth in his formative years as a child soldier.

Prompto nodded.

“Yeah, okay.”

“Let’s get you into one of my shirts,” Cor said, returning the nod. “Nyx, I have a shirt in the trunk. We have to change Prompto into it.”

“She can’t just strip in the middle of the parking lot, Cor,” Nyx scolded.

“The shirt is huge. It’ll cover her up just fine.”

Nyx raised his eyebrows at Cor like he thought his husband was crazy, but he climbed out of the back seat to get the shirt. Cor helped Prompto out of the car. The shirt was black, which was the only color anyone she knew seemed to wear, and it was large enough to hang off her shoulder. With a hand in Cor’s helping her keep her balance, she took off her worn yoga pants and underwear, which were both gross and soaked through with various fluids.

Nyx unceremoniously tossed the soiled clothes into the trunk.

“I have some hand sanitizer in the hospital bag,” Prompto said, “and my camera’s in there, too.”

“Got it,” Nyx said, and he searched the hospital bag for the items.

There had been some other discarded shirts in the back that they rested over the soaked front passenger seat to help soak up the mess she had already made and was still making. Once she was seated, both of her fathers rubbed hand sanitizer over their hands. Prompto knew hand sanitizer would not make them clean enough, but there was little time to do anything about it.

“Are you ready?” Cor asked. “I’m going to look.”

“Okay.”

Cor lifted the shirt. Prompto watched his face, waiting for some trace of disgust, but he just looked at her goopy and stretched body as nonchalantly as ever. Nyx held onto Prompto’s old camera—the same Nyx had bought her for her birthday back when he was still trying to win over Cor’s affection—and his face had turned green.

“That’s definitely eight centimeters,” Cor said.

“That’s, um,” Nyx began, and he gulped. “That’s how far she’s supposed to be, right?”

“Yeah. Push when you’re ready, Prompto.”

Prompto situated herself on the edge of the car seat, hoping gravity would do most of the work for her when the next contraction hit. When she looked at Nyx, she found him still green and pale, and his hands shook as he held up her camera to capture the moment. She wondered if it would even be watchable when she looked at it later.

When they had been planning to have the birth in the hospital, Prompto had asked Nyx to record it, but then Cor had volunteered to do it instead. Looking at the miserable man now, she realized why Cor had thought he would be the better person to film, but now he was stuck catching the baby while Nyx looked like he would fall over if a slight breeze struck him.

Prompto’s next contraction came, and it felt a lot like how she imagined it felt to get ripped in half. When it was over, she collapsed against the car seat, sweat rolling down her back. She felt a dull ache in her fingers from squeezing the car seat so hard, and she wondered if the thing would rip by the time they were done.

“How are you feeling, Prompto?” Cor asked.

Prompto only whined in answer, and she otherwise focused on her breathing. Several excruciating contractions later, Cor announced the head was almost out, and Prompto felt some relief, some endorphins already rushing through her. It brought her a spike of energy when she needed it most.

“The hardest part is almost over, Prompto,” Cor added.

Prompto used that extra spike of energy to reposition herself on the edge of the car seat, and when the next contraction came, Cor and gravity worked together to slip the baby out of her the rest of the way. It happened so quickly she jumped in surprise, and she looked down, finding Cor holding the baby in one arm. His eyebrows were pinched together as he used his finger to clear out the poor thing’s airway.

“Are they okay?” Prompto gasped.

Her heart pounded in her chest while looking at her child rather than struggling through the most painful moment of her life. They were goopy, pale, and wrinkly, and the umbilical cord still attached them to Prompto. Strands of dark hair were plastered to the little head. Cor’s arm blocked the sex from her, but that was the least of her concerns at the moment.

“Here, rub him down with this,” Nyx said, and he thrust a pale blue blanket toward him.

Cor rested the baby—her _son_—and the blanket in Prompto’s lap, and Prompto watched with rapt fascination as Cor rubbed the infant vigorously, like she had seen done in movies. The infant scrunched his little nose, and he wailed.

The warmth of relief flooded through her. Prompto heard a sigh of relief, but she was too focused on her son to figure out who it was. She gathered him in her arms, and she cradled him to her chest. Tears streamed down her face, and if anyone asked about them, she would blame the hormones running rampant in her body.

“Nice to finally meet you, Pax Leonis,” Prompto said, grinning from ear to ear.

Nyx wrapped his arms around her, and he kissed her temple.

“He’s beautiful, Prompto,” he said. 

“Thank you,” she sighed, her eyes never leaving the squirming bundle in her arms.

Prompto shifted him onto her shoulder, and she rubbed his little back.

By the time they heard sirens in the distance, he had calmed down, and Cor and Nyx had figured out how to clamp and sever the umbilical cord before it caused any serious complications for them both.

The ambulance pulled into the parking lot, and the paramedics fussed over both Prompto and her little boy before they helped her into the back of the vehicle. To everyone’s relief, they were both fine, but they would have to go to the hospital to be monitored over the next day or so. With only one person allowed with her, Nyx sat in the back of the ambulance with her while Cor drove behind or in his car all the way there.

* * *

“You really didn’t have to buy another car seat, Dad,” Prompto said as she buckled up her little Pax into the car seat. “There was one in my car.”

“It’s fine,” Cor said, and he started up the engine.

Prompto had worried all day and night that the fluids in Cor’s car would have stained the seat and the floorboards, but it turned out that the mess had cleaned up easily, leaving no trace of the incident happening, except it required a few more days to dry. The shirts had saved the car from the worst of the mess.

“You bought me the last one,” Prompto reminded him.

“And I’ll buy a hundred more if I feel like it.”

Prompto sighed, but she said nothing more as she settled herself into the seat next to the baby seat. She took out her phone to take a picture of Pax bundled up in his pastel yellow onesie and sent it to everyone in a group chat, which was flooded with messages of “awww” and hearts.

A moment later, Nyx sat in the other passenger seat next to Michaelangelo. He cooed over the bleary-eyed boy, adjusting his little hat to make sure it covered his ears.

“Do we have everything?” Cor asked.

“Yeah,” both Nyx and Prompto said.

Cor turned on the car stereo to some soft music that would soothe Pax without driving the three adults insane by the time they made it home, and he drove them out of the parking lot.

Prompto smiled as she watched her friends post comments about how cute Pax was. She was crying again, but that was just the hormones still running amok in her system. The doctor had promised it would be over in a few days, but she knew that she would be an emotional wreck for many years to come.

* * *

Prompto gazed at the cartoonish catoblepas she had painted onto the wall behind Pax’s crib. There were a few errant lines in it, but overall, she was proud of it. The thing was adorable, far cuter than the massive beasts she had fought in real life, and it was the largest thing she had ever drawn onto any surface.

The entire nursery had cartoonish animals painted onto the walls. Prompto’s favorite was the Chocobo that hung out by the changing table. Nyx’s was the coeurl near the closet, and its long whiskers crackled with electricity as they did in old legends. Cor would never admit to it, but his favorite was the Tonberry holding a little flower, judging by the way he smiled at it every time he checked on the room.

Prompto looked at Pax, who she had just rested in his crib. He was still, little belly rising and falling with his breaths, and she fought the urge to pick up the adorable little boy so he could get some rest. More stupid tears streamed down Prompto’s face as she stepped away from him, grabbing the baby monitor along the way. She turned off the overhead light, and she closed the door behind her.

Prompto heard silence throughout the rest of the house, but she knew Cor would have made it a point to wish her a good night if he had gone to bed. She went downstairs, going slowly because she was still sore and weak, and she found Cor sitting on the couch, scrolling through his phone—looking at work emails most likely. He would have a lot of them after disappearing from work to take her to the hospital.

“Prompto,” Cor said without looking up from his phone.

“Hey, Dad. Where’s Papa?”

“There was some kind of a disaster at the bar. Nyx went to check it out.”

Prompto shook her head at the news. She knew that no one at the bar would have bothered Nyx during this time if it was not serious.

“I hope Papa doesn’t strangle someone,” she sighed as she joined Cor on the couch, setting her baby monitor onto the table.

“He might.”

“If Crowe doesn’t do it first.”

Cor gave an honest chuckle at that. He leaned forward to set his phone down on the coffee table, and he turned to look at her.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Prompto said, swiping at her eyes, “except the hormones are still driving me crazy.”

Cor looped an arm around her shoulders, and he kissed her temple. She rested her head on his shoulder, and she settled her hand over his.

"I'm sorry you had to deliver my baby," she said.

"Shit happens. I'm just glad you're both healthy and safe."

"Yeah, I just wish I told you sooner. It was dumb to wait so long."

"You're not dumb. You had Pax pretty quick. None of us expected it to be over so soon."

Prompto nodded. It had taken only a few hours from the first contraction to birth, and she had been expecting to be at the hospital several hours later.

“I’m proud of you, Prompto,” Cor said. 

Prompto raised her eyebrows in surprise as she looked at her father.

She recalled a time when she had thought she would never hear those words from him. He had said it a few times growing up, usually when she came home with good grades on her report card, but the words had come less and less often as she had struggled to find herself in her adolescence, giving up on one dream and replacing it with another every few months. Then, just when she had thought she had everything figured out, she had gotten the bright idea to become a Hunter and chase after some cute blonde outside the city.

“I know I haven’t been telling you that,” he said, “and I’m sorry. I’ve always been proud of you. You’re smart, and you’re strong. You dive deeply into anything you have your heart set on. I admire all of that about you, and I should have said it to you more. You deserved to hear it.”

Heat bloomed on Prompto’s chest, and she gave him a goofy smile.

“I appreciate you telling me,” she said.

Cor’s eyes darkened as he turned his gaze from her, and that heat in her chest turned into a cold spike. She frowned at him.

“I didn’t hear it at all growing up,” Cor admitted. “When I decided I needed you in my life, I knew I had a lot of learning to be a better parent to you than the ones I had. I thought Clarus and Regis were good role models for me, but well, there is still a lot I got wrong. It hurt me when you left, and you didn’t know much I loved you, how proud I was of you—not just for what you have accomplished but for just being yourself, for being so kind and optimistic.”

Cor turned back to her with glistening eyes and a soft smile.

“I know I’m still terrible at communicating my feelings to you,” he continued, “and I’m sorry about that, too.”

Prompto chuckled as she recalled how she had thought he was trying to get her to leave just a few months ago. When he quirked up an eyebrow at her, she patted his hand.

“You express it a lot, actually,” she clarified. “You are always asking me questions, buying things for me, and showing off my pictures at work. You have always been trying to say you were proud of me, and I just didn’t get it. That makes us both disasters in our own ways, doesn’t it?”

“That’s one way of saying it.”

“I’ll admit it took me a long time to realize all of that,” Prompto said. “I was so embarrassed for a while about the baby, about coming home after all of this time and accepting your help, but then you made room for the baby. It was really touching.”

“I just want you to be happy.”

“I am happy. I’ve never felt happier.” 

Cor relaxed at that. He pressed his cheek against the top of her head, his beard scratching against her scalp.

“Good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll admit here that I'm not fond of this project. There are a lot of things I told you of showing you, and some things I left out because it would have come at you out of the blue. It needs to be completely rewritten, but I don't have the time to stick with it. I've spent too much time with it already, and I would just like to move onto other projects, particularly original stories.
> 
> Still, I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you so much for reading! Let me know what you think! Comments, whether praise or criticism, kudos, and subscriptions are all deeply appreciated.
> 
> I'm also planning out two stories using MerMay 2020 prompts. One will be my own original work, and the other will be a FFXV story. Wish me luck in staying focused long enough to get through them (and I finally received my pre-order of FFVIIR, which is definitely going to be a huge distraction)!


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